Chain



No. 623,959. Patented Apr. 25,1899. 6. G. HOWE. CHAIIL (Application fllad my 7, 1897.)

(No Model.)

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INVENTOR WITNESSES:

m ATTORN EY Nrrn TATES GLENN G. HOIVE, OF INDIANAPOLIS,

.. ATENT FFICE.

INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO THE EIVART CHAIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 623,959, dated April 25, 1899.

Application filed May '7, 1897. Serial No. 635,515. (No model.)

T on whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GLENN G. I-IOWE, of Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Chains; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

to My invention relates more particularly to that type of chains called drive-chains and of that species of this kind of chains in which are used a series of duplicate parts each comprising two side bars and one hollow end bar I 5 integral therewith, although my invention under proper modification may be applied to that other species of drive-chains composed of alternately-arranged side-bar links and connecting-sections.

As is well known to those skilled in the art of chain-making, it is very important in the construction of the chain to have the pintle like devices or male members of the articulations or hinge-like joints presentto the action of the female members of the joint exceedingly hard peripheral wearing-surfaces, while at the same time it is indispensably necessary that these pintle-like devices, after a proper assemblage of the parts to compose the chain, shall be permanently held in place endwise by some simple but effective means or device.

My invention has for its main object to provide for use a drive-chain which, while it shall be simple and economic of construction and shall possess great strength and durability, shall possess in an eminent degree the abovementioned desirable structural qualities.

To this main end and object my invention may be said to consist in a drive-chain of substantially the construction which will be hereinafter fully described and which will be most particularly pointed out in the claims of this specification.

To enable those skilled in the art to which my invention relates to make and use chain embodying the same, I will now proceed to more fully describe my novel construction,

referring by letters to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, and in which I have shown my invention carried into effect in those precise forms of chainlinks which I have so far actually made and used.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a partial plan or face view of two coupled or assembled links, full size, of a drive-chain made according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a partial edge view of the same looking from a point of view indicated by the arrow at in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a similar view looking in the direction indicated by the arrow 5 at Fig. 1. Fig. 4C is a detail cross-sectional view taken in a plane indicated by the dotted line a: wof Fig. 1. Fig.

5 is a detail partial longitudinal section taken in a plane indicated by the dotted line y y of Fig. 2, but with the keying device removed. Fig. 6 is a perspective view of one of the pintles detached and showing a different form of the latter or a modification of my improved chain.

In the several figures the same part will be found always designated by the same letter of reference, and in said figures A is the hollow end bar, and B and C the side bars, of an integrally-cast link.

D is the pintle-bar or male member of the articulation between two links and, as usual, passes through and occupies the bore of the tubular female member A, While f is the keying device by means of which the assembled parts of two coupled links are positively reretained in engagement.

In that precise form of my invention illustrated at Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive, each link, composed of the integral tubular end bar A and two side bars 13 and C, projecting (a little divergently) therefrom has the side bar B perforated near its end with a round hole (see Fig. 3) about equal in size to one end of the cylindrically-shaped pintle or pivot D and has the side barC formed with an irregularly-shaped or non-circular aperture (see Fig. 2) to accommodate the similarly-shaped other end portion of the said pintle. The 5 said pintle, as shown, has in its periphery a U-shapcd longitudinal groove .9 or is splined out at s for the accommodation of a keyingrod or fastener device f, and while the said pintle is made of very hard material, so as to bear the severe frictional draft strain inflicted upon its peripheral surface by the female member A of the chain-joint, the keying rod or wire f, which performs solely the function of a fastener to hold the pintle in place endwise relatively to the end bars B and C, is composed of some metal or material sufficiently strong to serve this purpose, but so soft that its ends can be readily upset or riveted, as seen at m, to effectuate its retention endwise within the spline of D and the apertures in B and O (in which it is seated) in the manner clearly shown and so as to operate as will be presently explained. In making my improved chain in the precise form seen at these figures (l to 5, inclusive) the parts are permanently coupled together or are assembled by placing the tubular end bar A of one link in the proper position intermediate of the perforated end bars B and C of another link, then inserting a pintle D within the apertures of said side bars and the bore of the part A, (passing the pintle D or entering it in the direction indicated by the arrow at Fig. 1,) and finally seating within its receptacle the soft keying rod or wirefand securing the latter in place. The said device f is preferably made with a head on at one end, and after having been placed or driven (endwise) into its place has the other end upset or riveted to form a like head m allas plainly shown. The irregularly-sh aped end of the pintle D and the correspondinglyshaped aperture in side bar C operate as a positive preventive to any turningorcircumferential movement of said pintle within said apertured side bars. In carrying out my invention in the manufacture of certain sizes and species of the type of chain shown it may, however, be found unnecessary to make either end of the pintle-bar D in a non-circular or irregular shape, in which case the said bar would be made as shown in the modification of the main part of my invention illustrated at Fig. 6 of the drawings, and under such modification or in such case both of the side bars I and 0 would of course have circular perforations, such as the one shown as made in the side bar B in the other figures of the drawings. Under this modification the pintle-bar D could of course be inserted endwise in assembling the parts to form the chain in either direction, although under the construction specifically shown in Figs. 1 to 5 of the drawings it mustbe inserted in the particular direction indicated by the arrow at Fig. 1.

From the foregoing explanations, taken in connection with the drawings, (which form part of this specification) it will be understood, of course, that my invention consists, broadly, in a form of drive-chain involving (under any detailed construction) the use, in connection with the perforated side bars, of one link and the tubular portion of another link (or connecting-section) of a hard pintle D, formed with a longitudinal groove or receptacle for the body portion of a keying device, and a small bar or red of softer metal located wholly within said groove or recess of the pintle and upset or headed over at both ends, for the purpose specified, and necessarily located either at one or both ends wholly within the circumference of the perforation or perforations in the side bars of the link, while my said invention involves also the more specific construction shown and described, in which one end of the pintle D has an irregular or non-circular shape, and the side bar contiguous to said end portion of the pin tle has a correspondingly non-circular perforation, so that the said pintle is thus positively locked or held against any revoluble movement within the perforations of the side bars of the link.

In either of the forms of my invention shown and described it will be seen that the soft rod used as the keying device performs solely the function of fastening or holding the pintle in place endwise and does not in any manner serve the office or purpose of a device to preventany revoluble movement of said pintle.

Having now so fully explained my invention that those skilled in the art can make and use the same in either of the forms hereinbefore set forth or under any other mere modification of my novel construction, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a drive-chain, the combination, with the two perforated end portions of the side bars of one link; and the tubular end portion of another link, or connecting-section, of a pintle, or pivot, havingalongitudinalgroove, or recess, in its periphery, and having its end portions passing through the said perforations of the link side bars; and a soft-metal keying device, or fastener, which is arranged within the said pintle-groove, which has its end portions passing through the said side-bar perforations, and which has its extreme ends headed,to effectuate the retention in place,endwisc only, of the said pintle; all substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

2. In a drive-chain, the combination, with the tubular end portion of onelink, or section; and the side bars of another link, one of which side bars has a circular perforation, near one end, and the other of which has a non-circular perforation similarly located, of a longitudinally-grooved pintle, or pivot, one end portion of which occupies the said circular perforation of one of said side bars, and the other end portion of which is of non-circular stantially as and for the purposes hereinbeform, to fit; into the said non-circular perfora: fore set forth. 10 tion of she other side bar; and a soft-metal In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my keying-rod which is located Within the groove hand this 24th day of April, 1897.

of said pintle, which has its ends passing GLENN G. HOWE. clear through the perforations of both side In presence ofbars, and is headed, or upset, at both ends to H. D. GORDON,

hold said pintle in place endwise; all sub- CLINTON E. PROUSE. 

